Sophie Shepard: KIA
by Thellana
Summary: Sophie thinks this is a routine mission. Investigating missing ships shouldn't be too hard, right?
1. The Calm Before The Storm

**A/N: Sorry about the delay in uploading. Here's the first fic in Sophie's Mass Effect 2 timeline. Enjoy and don't forget to leave feedback if you have any!**

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Sophie Shepard: K.I.A

Chapter 1 - The Calm Before The Storm

Sophie Shepard paces her cabin like a trapped animal. Liara tries for the fourth time to get the Spectre to sit down and relax. "Sophie, would you please sit down?", she stands in Shepard's path this time and places her hands on the woman's shoulders. "Please?" she tries, looking into the human's blue eyes.

Sophie is stopped by Liara and she sighs "Li, this entire mission is a waste of time. The council want to keep me quiet."

"That may be so and I understand your frustration. But you need to relax." Liara gently encourages the commander to sit on the couch in the cabin. "Just five minutes. Can you manage that?" the asari looks to the Spectre who nods. "Good. I'll go fetch some coffee. Don't move."

As Liara leaves the cabin Shepard does as she's told, staying put on the couch with a degree of difficulty. She hates sitting on her hands. She looks around the cabin and as her eyes find the bed, she recalls the night before Ilos and how Liara had come to the cabin to admit just how she felt. She smiles widely, knowing that the asari has come a long way since the shy archaeologist they'd picked up on Therum.

Liara's return is announced with a ping and a hiss as the door opens. "I'm impressed, you managed to stay sat down." she sasses, placing a cup of coffee on the table in front of Sophie. She sits by her on the couch, her own cup in hand.

"I can behave when I want too." Sophie returns as she picks her cup up, sipping from it carefully. "Besides, I was thinking about our first night together."

Liara sips her own coffee and regards the human "Well, it _is_ a rather fond memory." Liara blinks and sighs "Calling our first night together a fond memory already is odd, no? It wasn't that long ago."

"True, but our relationship didn't have the luxury of time. We chased Saren across the galaxy and frankly we were headed for what could've potentially been an end of the world scenario. I'd say that warranted the whole 'we could die, let's throw caution to the wind and make love thing'" she laughs and puts her cup down on the table.

Liara puts her cup down too, looking to Sophie with a smile. "I love y-.." she doesn't get to finish the term of endearment as something hits the Normandy's hull causing the two women to be thrown from the couch. Sirens start to wail. Sophie's up already and getting into her hardsuit.

"Liara, move! Get people into escape pods and meet me at damage control, I'll signal the Alliance!" with that final bark the Spectre has pulled her helmet on and has transformed from lover to commander, leaving the room in a run.


	2. Under Attack

Sophie Shepard: K.I.A

Chapter 2 - Under Attack

As the Normandy leaves FTL, Joker speaks over the comm as people go about their various duties. "Disengaging FTL drives. Emission sinks active. Board is green..we are running silent."

Pressly approaches the bridge, datapad in hand. He speaks as he looks between the ensign manning the long range scanner and Joker. "We're wasting our time. Four days searching up and down this sector, and we haven't found any sign of geth activity."

"Three ships have gone missing here in the past month Pressly, something's up and we're gonna find out what." offers Joker.

"My money's on slavers. The Terminus System is crawling with them" returns Pressly

The ensign speaks up as she swipes her hand across the haptic interface "Picking up something on the long range scanner. Unidentified vessel. Looks like a cruiser." She continues to monitor the unknown vessel, but Joker's already speaking.

"Doesn't match any known signatures."

"Cruiser is changing course. Now on intercept trajectory." The ensign tries to maintain her cool as she speaks.

Pressly butts in "Can't be. Our stealth systems are engaged. There's no way a geth ship could-"

Joker cuts in as he starts to put the Normandy through her paces."That's because it's not the Geth. Hang on everybody! Brace for evasive manoeuvres!" The unknown vessel's weaponry charges up and looses a focused beam, glancing the Normandy's hull and causing the terminal that Pressly is near to overload, the blast killing him instantly and causing an electrical fire.

"Pressly!" shouts the ensign as she gets up to check on the man, but her terminal overloads and causes a violent explosion which kills her before she can even get out of her chair.

Joker's increasingly panicked voice reads off the incoming damage reports "Kinetic barriers down!, Multiple hull breaches!, Weapons offline!, Someone get that fire out!." There's another direct hit. The Normandy struggling to get away from her pursuer.


	3. Evacuation

Sophie Shepard: K.I.A

Chapter 3 - Evacuation

Liara T'soni runs through the burning mess hall, clad in her new suit of white armour, helmet in hand. She passes the bodies of crew members, unable to spare any time to mourn for them. She runs down the aisle of sleeper pods to meet Sophie who's frantically working away to send a distress signal to the Alliance. The human woman turns around and says. "Distress beacon is ready for launch."

"Will the Alliance reach us in time?" Liara asks as she slides her own helmet on

"They won't abandon us." Sophie comforts Liara, even as their home crumbles around them. Another small explosion causes the pair to stumble around. The human grabs a fire extinguisher and tosses it to Liara. "Get everyone onto the escape pods!"

Liara catches the fire extinguisher and goes about putting out a nearby fire "Joker's still in the cockpit, he won't evacuate." she then adds sternly as she finishes putting out the fire."I'm not leaving either."

"Liara, I need you to get to an escape pod, this is no time to argue!" Shepard starts to shout as she runs about the small space trying to contain the damage.

"Sophie..." Liara pleads.

"Liara, go!" is the only response

The asari squares her shoulders "Aye, Aye" and runs off to the escape pods, gathering the crew members that are already on their way to escape their dying home. She gets the survivors into the pod, among them is Karin Chakwas. "Go! Go! Go!" she yells, watching each person bring their harness down to secure them into their seats in the pod. She looks one final time to where her lover was last before climbing into the pod. The door sealing behind them and the pod gets fired out of its dock.


	4. Death

Sophie Shepard: K.I.A

Chapter 4 - Death

Sophie looks around, the ship's mess hall is a wreck. Fires have started and there's pieces of debris strewn about. She has to get to Joker on the bridge. As she stumbles up the familiar steps to get into the CIC she spots the large section of the hull that has been blown away, leaving the CIC exposed to the vacuum of space. Her suit locks down and her boots magnetically attach to the floor. She continues slowly through the debris, the Normandy barely holding together.

"Joker! What the hell are you doing!?" she shouts as she reaches the pilot who is still trying to save his ship.

"I can still save her! I won't abandon her!" Joker pleads

"You should've been on the first escape pod! The Normandy's lost and throwing your life away won't change that!" Shepard tries to make Joker see reason.

"Fine.. " he finally surrenders. Shepard's hand grabs his arm and she helps him to the bridge's escape pod. "Ow! watch the arm!" Then he notices it. The enemy's back in range. "They're coming around for another attack! Shepard, get in!" he cries and reaches out for his commander who's struggling to maintain a foothold. She hits the release for Joker's pod as she is lifted off of her feet and as the door closes he watches as the vessel makes one final shot, which tears the bridge apart and knocks Sophie into a bulkhead and out into space.

Sophie regains consciousness as her suit's HUD flashes all kinds of warnings at her. The one that's most prominent however is that her supply of oxygen is dropping fast. She reaches for the back of her helmet to find the connections severed. The pipe has been bent out of shape by the impact against the bulkhead. She tries frantically to reattach it as she slowly suffocates. Her struggles stop as precious oxygen runs out and the last thing she sees before blackness is Liara.


End file.
